Sittingbourne boss Reece Prestedge is looking forward to a busy Bank Holiday weekend with the Brickies travelling to face Aylesbury United at Beaconsfield on Friday night before hosting Craig Stone’s Ashford United on Monday.
The Brickies go into the weekend with three wins and a draw thus far but in each game, Sittingbourne have netted after the ninety-minute mark. Talking to KSN this week, the Brickies boss was in reflective mood; “We’re all delighted at the start that we have made although obviously would have liked not leaving everything to the ninetieth minute of matches all the time but isn’t it nice to be on the back end of late goals rather than on the receiving end.
“I think you have to credit the boys for keeping going right to the final whistle whenever that comes as they have the belief that they will get the result in the end.”
“You have to remember that we possibly had one of the toughest collective of games in a row for anyone in the division to start the season. Being away in both the cup and the trophy hasn’t helped as today’s game is just our second at home out of the six games that we have played so far!”
The Brickies who reached the last eight of the Trophy two seasons ago start this campaign on the road, but on Friday night; the manager explained, “The Trophy game had to be played on Friday – we had little choice and playing it on the Friday of a Bank Holiday in particular, did create its own problems as lots of people were travelling for weekends away adding to the usual Friday night traffic.
“It wasn’t a local destination for us either, something we have no control over, though I thought it would have been a little bit more regional. That said, playing Friday night will hopefully give us extra recovery time ahead of Monday’s game with Ashford. In that respect, it made sense to play it Friday night under the lights, and hopefully it will give our supporters a good start to the Bank Holiday.”
“A home league game and being at home Monday afternoon; finally, it’s the same as always as we want the games at Woodstock to be maximum points and that’s what we will be striving for.
“Ashford finished last season on a very good run which included beating us at Homelands towards the back end as well and they will be a tough test. Once again, every single opposition team in this league is exactly that – tough tests – and we will have to be on it every single week!”
“Some would say it’s the best time to play some of the “bigger” sides too as you could say that everyone is still finding their feet where it is early. Yet at the same time, you have to look and manage it yourself, to see if everything is coming off the way that you want it too as pre-season to league campaign is a massive difference; everything could work pre-season but you come to the first game and they don’t. We’ve enjoyed the tough start, but we have come out of it with the results of course!”